Happy Heroes: Chapter 1 (2)

Mowed my lawn today which took me 3 hours! Phew! Anyway, enjoy today's chunk of translation:

It was spring at that time. As the old sayings say, “The whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring.” Spring is a season good for many things and is also the best season for the escorting business.

The best season for the escorting business is also the best season for robbers and bandits.

Luo Zhenyi, the Chief Escort of the “Central Region Escort House”, an experienced escort despite his young age, naturally understood this very well. Therefore, he was extra careful on his escort trip. Besides, it was in the spring season and the goods he was escorting were especially valuable.

Yet, being careful alone is not enough to guarantee a successful escort trip. Also needed are fine Kung Fu skills and good luck.

Luo Zhenyi’s Kung Fu skills were not bad; nevertheless, his luck this time was no good. Of all the bandits he could have run into, he had to run into the most notorious and vicious gangster of the entire region, Brotherhood of Ouyang.

Brotherhood of Ouyang was not a gang with two, three, or more members. Brotherhood of Ouyang is the name of a single person.

Although he was only a single person, he was more difficult to fend off than a gang of forty. Wielding a short dagger in his left hand, a long knife in his right, he could still launch seven or eight types of projectiles at the same time. No one could tell where those missiles and darts were launched from.

Luo Zhenyi couldn’t, either. He had barely dodged away from three “Brocade-Back Crossbow Arrows” and a batch of “Shooting-Star Throwing Arrows”, when Brotherhood of Ouyang turned the back of his knife and shot out a pair of “Icy needles.”

These deadly needles came out from places where no one could have guessed and landed on Luo Zhenyi’s right shoulder squarely. Although these needles didn’t kill him right away, all he could do was to wait for Brotherhood of Ouyang to finish him off.

Even if Brotherhood of Ouyang didn’t kill him, once he lost the escorted goods, he would have no choice but to finish himself off, whether to hang himself or drown in the river or slit his own throat.

Right at that moment, all of a sudden, there came a galloping horse from afar. The horse was a fast horse, but the rider was even faster. Before the horse had approached, the rider had already arrived. Brotherhood of Ouyang only saw a figure falling out of the sky. He didn’t even have a chance to shoot out any one of his eight kinds of projectiles, when both of his wrists had been slashed by a sword.

The savior falling out of the sky was, of course, none other than Guo Dalu.

Luo Zhenyi not only was grateful to this savior, but also felt great admiration for him, so much that he almost groveled before him. After escorting the goods to the final destination, he firmly insisted on inviting the savior to visit the Escort House.

Naturally, Guo Dalu went. He didn’t have anything else to do anyway.

Even if he had other things, he would have gone anyway.

This was the first time he ever fought someone for real. He suddenly realized that he had not only fine Kung Fu skills, but also fine personalities.

That made Luo Zhenyi wonder, so he asked, “Brother Guo has such excellent Kung Fu skills! Why aren’t you an escort?”

Guo Dalu didn’t even ask, “Why people with good Kung Fu skills must become escorts?” He simply thought that being an escort would make him look quite awe-inspiring and sounded like a fun idea.

For a man who just barely left home to become the Deputy Chief Escort, it was awe-inspiring and impressive, indeed!

Guo Dalu had only one regret: The ‘Central Region Escort House’ was not the largest escort house in the Central Region. It couldn’t even be considered a first-class escort house.

The first business only came after he had waited for several days, and it wasn’t even a significant one. All they were asked to do was to escort a few thousand taels from Kaifeng to Luoyang^[1].

The trip is short and the goods are unimportant. Besides, the Deputy Chief Escort would be going. Naturally, the Chief Escort had no worries, and felt very comfortable to stay at his comfortable home for a recovery.

It was still in the season of spring. In the morning, the escort wagons left right on time.

---

[1] Both Kaifeng and Luoyang are cities in the Henan Province in China.

One cannot reason with a pregnant woman!

Happy Heroes: Chapter 1 (1)

A few words first: Survived the class in Spring!! And started teaching a class today for Summer. Since today is Monday and is the first day of the Summer term, it is a good day to start blogging regularly. I'll try to post daily starting from today. And here below is a chunk of translation:

ONE

Guo Dalu’s name fits him well. “Dalu”, in the mother tongue, is normally used to describe someone somewhat bighearted, yet reckless and careless, even muddle-headed some times, who doesn’t really care much about anything. And Guo Dalu is indeed a very “Dalu” person.

Wang Dong, where Dong means move in the mother tongue, however, doesn’t like to move.

TWO

“Dalu” people are usually very poor. Guo Dalu is especially poor, so exceptionally poor that he is completely off the chart.

In fact, he shouldn’t have been so poor at all.

In fact, he could even be considered a very wealthy man to begin with. When a wealthy man suddenly becomes dirt poor, there are only two possible explanations: 1) he must be dumb; 2) he must be lazy.

But Guo Dalu is not dumb. He knows more skills than most people and is better at them than most people. For example –

Horse-riding. He can ride the fastest horse and tame the most violent-tempered horse.

Fencing. His thrust can pierce a knight’s suit of armor; it can also pierce the willow catkin dancing in the spring breeze.

If you are a friend of his, and when he happens to be in a very good mood, he might dive into the Yellow River and catch a few carps with bare hands before leaping out from the water to snatch a couple of wild geese, so he could cook you some steamed fish and roasted goose, and watch you gulfing down the delicious dish. You won’t be disappointed once you taste them, since his cooking skill is no less than any famed cook in the entire capital city.

He can sing poet Su Shi’s “East Going Yangtze River” with iron pad and copper pi-pa^[1]. He can also play a bandore and sing poet Liu Yong’s “Willow shore, morning breeze and lingering moon.”^[2] Hearing him singing, you would probably have thought he had been singing for a living all his life.

Someone even believes that he knows how to do everything except giving birth.

He is not lazy, either. Actually, he is always looking for things to do and have done all kinds of work. How can a man like this be poor?

The first job he had was an escort.

At that time, he just finished vigil beside his parents’ grave, and had just got rid of the family land, sold some and gave away some. He wanted to adventure the world with his various skills.

Of course, he is not a very capable businessman and is not interested to become one, either. Hence, the farmland worth three hundred taels^[3] per acre only sold for one hundred and seventy. Then after he gave a bunch of taels away to poor relatives and friends, there was not much left.

However, there were still enough taels left to buy him a fast horse, to make a sharp sword, to order a few suits of handsome robes, to live in the best hotel, and to enjoy the best restaurant.

---

[1] Iron pad and copper pi-pa are two ancient Chinese instruments that are commonly used to play resounding and heroic songs. “East Going Yangtze River” is a famous poem by poet Su Shi of the Song Dynasty. It was used as the lyric for a song with the same name, and the style of the song is courageous and heroic.

[2] “Willow shore, morning breeze and lingering moon” is a famous poem by poet Liu Yong of the Song Dynasty. It was also used as the lyric for a song with the same name, and the style of the song is slow and gentle.

[3] Tael is a unit of weight (about 32.5 grams). It was popular as the unit for silver currency in ancient China.

"With great power comes great responsibility -- Spiderman"
"With a big yard comes lots of yardwork -- Lanny"

Picture of the Day:

 

Given that wife is happy and professor is happy, what it the probability of an ugly lawn?

European Cup (Started on 6/7/08)
P(e)=0.6

Wife Out of Town (leaving Lanny home alone with the kid)
P(w)=0.65

Lazy
P(l)=0.25

Sick
P(s)=0.45

Busy
E W | P(b|E, W)
===================
T T | 0.999
T F | 0.61
F T | 0.95
F F | 0.5

Ugly Lawn
L B S | P(u|L,B,S)
======+============
T T T | 0.999
T T F | 0.5
T F T | 0.88
T F F | 0.3
F T T | 0.92
F T F | 0.45
F F T | 0.85
F F F | 0.05

MCMC Lab Late
L B S | P(m|L,B,S)
======+============
T T T | 0.9
T T F | 0.71
T F T | 0.76
T F F | 0.01
F T T | 0.89
F T F | 0.7
F F T | 0.75
F F F | 0.02

Wife Happy
U | P(w|U)
==+================
T | 0.01
F | 0.4

Prof. Happy
M | P(p|M)
==+================
T | 0.75
F | 0.90